Appalling case of rape and chemical submission, the trial in Avignon with 50 accused should finally be held at the courthouse

The trial should finally be held in the Avignon courthouse next September.

An extraordinary trial must be held in Vaucluse for four months and around fifty men accused of rape. The audience considered outside the   The courthouse should ultimately be held at the Avignon courthouse. But not for budgetary reasons, an official source assured this Saturday, but for reasons linked to the evolution of the affair. Explanations

This is an extraordinary affair. Nearly fifty suspects were arrested and a large number of them were indicted and imprisoned in an unprecedented case of aggravated rape. The facts denounced took place in a house in Mazan (Vaucluse). A sixty-year-old woman was drugged by her husband and allegedly delivered to dozens of men contacted via the internet.

The Mazan rape case, which is to give rise to an extraordinary trial in Vaucluse from next September, should be judged at the Avignon courthouse. Around fifty accused will be tried by the departmental criminal court on the basis of sexual relations and chemical submission. Initially, given the scale of the debates and the fifty accused, it was envisaged that the trial would be held in a suitable location but outside the walls of the courthouse. A budget had been considered to allow the rental of a space large enough to accommodate the  fifty defendants and almost as many lawyers.

Video-conferencing system

But very recently, the idea of ​​a trial in the Avignon courthouse resurfaced and it was obviously this option that was chosen. Not to save money but to adapt to new developments in the business, we learned from an official source this Saturday, April 13. Indeed, it would seem that the trial could be held behind closed doors (according to the Dauphiné llibéré) and therefore without the public or journalists (except for the verdict rendered in open court). This option would make it possible to position the 50 accused in the Avignon courthouse, perhaps even distributed in several rooms equipped with a videoconferencing system. The fact remains that approximately 17 defendants risk appearing detained unless additional releases occur between now and September.

Clearly, the trial will be held at the Avignon courthouse but this would not be linked to a budgetary cut preventing the rental of a large capacity room for four months . The cost of such a rental and the associated costs seemed to be close to 1.5 million euros. The idea of ​​a refocusing in line with the latest developments in the hearing was put forward this Saturday by an official Parisian source who refutes a budget cut.

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